Place Your Bets, Ladies and Gentlemen; ISS Ed.

Anyone feel like speculating as to how long it will be before the ISS is de-orbited as an effective casualty of Putin's European War?

John McCain was right about the folly of buying Russian rocket engines.

Trump’s Meds

Trump needs this to help him with his bad case of McCain Derangement Syndrome.

President* Donald Trump aimed new blasts of invective at the late John McCain Wednesday, even claiming credit for the senator’s moving Washington funeral though he “never liked” him — and complaining he was never properly thanked.

Let's be clear about this: The honor of lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda is an honor that is granted by both the Senate Majority Leader and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The President has jack point shit to do with it. Further, as the article pointed out, Sen. McCain planned his funeral. Trump's contribution was to allow, after considerable public pressure, McCain's remains to be flown from Arizona to D.C. on a C-32A. Trump only had the flag flown at half-staff for a day, raising it over the White House, until public pressure forced him to relent.

Trump's conduct during the period of the national mourning for the passing of Sen McCain was a display of pettiness, meanness, and deep butthurt. It has to gall Trump no end that even those who opposed McCain politically recognized him as a man who spent his entire adult life in service to his country, in one form or another.

Nobody will ever think that of Cadet Bone Spurs. Even those who are allied with Trump for political reasons know that he is a man without a shred of honor or dignity.

In the core of his blasted and corrupt soul, Trump has to know that Meghan McCain was spot on when she said that nobody will ever love Trump the way that they did John McCain.

And so, Trump's public display of juvenile-grade butthurt will go on.

Quote of the Day

"No one will ever love you the way that they loved my father." Meghan McCain, responding to Trump's weekend tweetstorm

No one will ever love you the way they loved my father.... I wish I had been given more Saturday’s with him. Maybe spend yours with your family instead of on twitter obsessing over mine? https://t.co/q7ezwmHiQ4

— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) March 16, 2019

Trump can't let go of McCain.

"Even now, Trump can't let go of his contempt for McCain" https://t.co/WcbmtAFFyE. Trump hates McCain b/ c he can never be the beloved patriot that McCain was. Just as he hates Obama b/c he can never be the president that Obama was. Trump is the worse POTUS in American history.

— Chuck Stewart (@Cubbie242Chuck) March 18, 2019

What an utterly pathetic man-child we have for a president.

Pismires

One of the things that has sort of enraged me over the last week is reading wingnut blogs which have referred to the late Sen McCain as "Songbird".

That is nothing more than a right-wing insult, made by people who have not an iota of McCain's character and grit. It's an insult from people who are sitting in comfortable chairs and who largely have never suffered any serious physical discomfort in their lives. They certainly didn't spend five years in a Commie prison, being ill-fed, mistreated and tortured.

So McCain broke under torture. Everybody does. Unless you, personally, have experienced being tortured by North Vietnamese sadists, you have no right to judge McCain.

Therefore, if you're one of the legions of right-wing trolls who have called McCain "Songbird", you should be ashamed of yourselves.

And if you are not ashamed of yourself for that, then go fuck yourself, your horse, your parents, your ancestors back ten generations, and anyone who looks like you. For you are a disgusting lump of sentient protoplasm.

In conclusion: Go fuck yourself.

Right-Wing Corpse-Dancers

Republican Senate candidate Kelli Ward and her campaign think the McCain family may have released a statement about ending the late senator’s cancer treatments to interfere with her bus tour.

Because McCain's fight against cancer and decision to let go was all about Kelli Ward... or so that troll of a candidate thinks.

One has to be a Trump-grace narcissist to think of that. Which Ward apparently is.

Beyond that, from all of the hate and brickbats being thrown at McCain's corpse from the Right since his passing, you would have thought that he was Vladimir Lenin incarnate. Most of those figuratively dancing on McCain's corpse are not fit to have shined his shoes.

McCain served his country, in one fashion or another, for over six decades. I daresay that most of those now celebrating his passing have a tiny fraction of McCain' time serving this country, if any at all.

(I'm thinking in particular of Commandante Bone Spurs, in particular, who could not mention McCain's name while signing a bill bearing McCain's name. I don't believe for a nanosecond that he personally wrote the tweet to honor McCain's memory.)

Farewell, Maverick

John S. McCain, the proud naval aviator who climbed from depths of despair as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to pinnacles of power as a Republican congressman and senator from Arizona and a two-time contender for the presidency, died on Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81.

If there was one moment when he showed his political character, it was when he refused to pander to a display of nativist bigotry during his `08 campaign:

[W]hen a woman said she did not trust Mr. Obama because “he’s an Arab,” Mr. McCain, in one of the most lauded moments of his campaign, replied: “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”

I have disagreed with McCain on a lot of issues. But there was no doubt that McCain was grounded in patriotism, a sense of duty, and love of country.

Rest in peace, Senator.

Once a Petty Dick, Always a Petty Dick

Celebrating the signing of the 2019 military authorization funding bill at Fort Drum in upstate New York on Monday, President* Donald Trump New York made no mention of the man whose name is attached to the legislation: John McCain.

The John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 was named in honor of the longtime Arizona senator and former prisoner of war who is chair of the Senate Armed Service Committee and currently battling brain cancer.

Trump is a petty little excuse of a man. There are canines pooping in the park who are more dignified than Trump.

It would have cost Trump nothing to have a moment of magnanimity for McCain. But that's not Trump; he has the temper and self-control of a toddler boy and the prickly sense of personal self of a tweener girl.

And as to why he can't seem to bring himself to condemn Nazis, I suspect it's less a matter of kowtowing to his base and more a matter of Trump sympathizing with them.

McCain

Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, Vietnam prisoner of war and political maverick in Congress for more than three decades, has been diagnosed with an aggressive type of brain tumor.

The 80-year-old Arizona lawmaker has glioblastoma, according to doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, where McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye last Friday. He and his family are considering further treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation.

My heart goes out to Sen. McCain and his family. In the ranking of cancer, glioblastoma is a four-starred motherfucker.

Unclear on the Concept; Caribou Barbie Edition

Sarah Palin seems to be a little unclear as to what is the name of her native language:

It is to John McCain's eternal damnation that he wanted to put her a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

"When the Presidential Bug Gets in Your Veins, the Only Thing That Will Get It Out is Embalming Fluid."

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said on Saturday that he was leaving his weekly Fox News show so he can explore a 2016 presidential bid.

And

While some people close to [Willard M.] Romney insist he hasn’t moved from saying he has no plans to run, the 2012 Republican nominee has sounded at least open to the idea in recent conversations, according to more than a dozen people who’ve spoken with him in the past month.

And

“America loves an underdog. We’re definitely the underdog in this race,” he said in an interview Tuesday. [Rick "Frothy"] Santorum added that being underestimated — again — “has given me a lot of latitude.”

About the only ones not considering jumping into the race are Bob Dole, John McCain and Harold Stassen.

McCain's Flirtation with Ukrainian Neo-Nazis?

A column in the LA Times points out that Ukrainian fascists and neo-nazis are making up a critical part of the new government in Ukraine. The leader of one of the neo-nazi groups (Svboda, aka the Neo-Nazi Social-Nation Party of Ukraine) has publicly praised Ukrainians in World War II who massacred Jews.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine is a member of a neo-nazi party. Another neo-nazi goon now has control of the Ukrainian armed forces and police.

And yet, the Israeli ambassador met with those people.

The Russian view of Ukraine is that a government which was elected by a democratic process was overthrown by a coalition of Eurotrash, which were led around by two neo-fascist groups, Svboda and Red Sector. Whether you accept their argument that the snipers shooting in Kiev was a false-flag operation by Svboda/Red Sector gunmen or not, the fact that neo-fascists now have significant power in Ukraine should give some pause to both the Right-Wing Noise Machine as well as the Obama Administration.

But it hasn't made a dent. Maybe we should wonder why.

The Defining Difference Between Russia and the U.S.

Our respective borders.

We are reasonably invasion-proof. Racist-based paranoia aside, even in 1942, it was pretty clear to rational thinkers that Japan couldn't mount an invasion of the United States. Besides the oceans, there is a major desert in northern Mexico, and some not-insignificant mountainous terrain. Getting the Southwest and Texas out of Mexican hands pushed any invasion from the south back across that terrain. While the Canadian border is relatively open across much of its length, the Canadians don't have the resources to mount an invasion, so any allies would have to cross the oceans.

In short, geography has given us security.

That is not the case for Russia. There are no major geographic obstacles between Moscow and Paris, other than some rivers. Three times in the last three centuries, European armies have attempted to conquer Russia.* The only defense that geography offers Russia against invasion from the west is distance.

If you understand that, then you understand why the Russians were pleased when the Yanukovych government tilted away from the EU. If you understand that, you will understand why the Russians viewed the addition of Poland and the Baltic states to NATO as a threat to their own security.

Beyond that, as we have shown little hesitation to bring about regime change by using our own military when it suits our purposes, it gripes me to hear the whining from clowns ranging from John Kerry to John McCain when somebody else does it.
____________________________________________
* 18th Century- Sweden. 19th Century- France. 20th Century- Germany. I rather doubt that the Russians have forgotten that the Ukrainians sided with the Swedes.

Fifty Years On

I wrote this post five years ago. I'll stand on it.

But what I didn't know five years ago is how poisonous the atmosphere would be today from the Right. Despite two elections won by clear majorities of the popular vote and outright shellackings of the GOP in the Electoral College both times, the bitter dead-enders in much of the GOP persist with the birther/seekrit Muslim nonsense. From the reading I've done of JFK's time, it may be even more virulent than it was fifty years ago.

They lost, twice, and they just can't get over it.

Frankly, I'm somewhat astonished that at least one loon hasn't tried for regime change with a rifle by now (I'm writing this six weeks in advance).

Regime Change and Wing-Walking

One of the first rules of wing-walking is to never let go of one wing strut until you have a firm grasp on the next one.

That rule ought to apply to regime change. Some of our more hawkish politicians (Miss Lindsey and Mr. McCain, for two) are frothing at the mouth for regime change in Syria, but they have nothing much to say about what any new regime should look like.

I submit to you, Gentle Reader, that there are two poster children for why we should avoid the temptation to push for regime change: Libya and Iraq. Both nations were ruled by dictators who ruled their nations with a strong and brutal hand. We effected regime change.

Libya is now a failed state, though, to be fair, the same could have also been said of the American Confederation. The Libyans may be able to get their act together. The weight of history in such situations, would indicate otherwise.

Iraq was a strategic buffer against Iran. After we effected regime change (and then left, per the terms of our agreement with the new government), Iraq became a nation that is somewhere between an ally of Iran and a vassal of Iran. The government there is becoming less democratic as time passes, the internal security (which was tenuous) is deteriorating, and it is only a matter of time before the government becomes a dictatorship.

Using force to effect regime change is like taking a hammer to a glass table-top and then expecting the shards to reassemble themselves.

But the pro-war neo-cons and their sympathizers in the Obama Administration (I'm looking at you, Susan Rice and John Kerry) seem to think that this time will somehow be different. I submit to you that the classic rule: "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result" applies.

Once again, this fifty year old song seems to be appropriate:

Well, it Seems That Romney Lost in Iowa

Willard M. Romney may have lost the Iowa caucuses to Rick Santorum.

No word as to whether or not this news has dented the "The Inevitable Mitt" line of dung that is being peddled by the pontificating pundits.

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign's opposition research book on Romney is out on the Intertubes. Apparently somebody on Grampaw's old campaign staff wasn't in tune with McCain's endorsement of the Flip-Flopper.

Torture Nation

Senator John McCain on the use of torture:

I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear — true or false — if he believes it will relieve his suffering. Often, information provided to stop the torture is deliberately misleading.

Mistreatment of enemy prisoners endangers our own troops, who might someday be held captive. While some enemies, and al-Qaeda surely, will never be bound by the principle of reciprocity, we should have concern for those Americans captured by more conventional enemies, if not in this war then in the next.

This is the video of his Senate speech.



Where I differ from McCain is in McCain's view that those who practiced torture under the Bush Administration should not be prosecuted. Torture was illegal before 9-11, it was illegal while the Bush Administration authorized the use of torture, and it has been illegal since then. McCain has also waffled in the past on whether it would be permissible for the CIA to torture people, although that 2008 position may have been part of his general whoring-out to the wingnuts during his failed campaign.

The use of torture was and is a crime, both under U.S. law and international law. It should be prosecuted. And some day, it will be.

Pakistan Complains of "Unauthorized Unilateral Action"

My short reaction to Pakistan's complaint:

I'll skip past the point that Senator John McCain once agreed with Pakistan on this, for McCain has had the grace to praise President Obama.

It is hard for me to look at the events of the last few days and not hear echoes of Operation Thunderbolt. The echoes I hear are that the nation where the operation took place was, then and now, playing both sides of the game.

Maybe bin Ladin and his people had such good operational security that they were able to hide there, unseen by the Pakistanis. It's probably certain that, if bin Ladin ever left his compound, that he did so under the cover of night. He did have a large bounty on his head and all it would have taken was one person to see him and make a call.

The thing is, Pakistan's ISI doesn't strike me as being terribly incompetent, especially at the internal security function. Maybe they truly didn't know he was there. But they did know that bin Ladin was someplace inside Pakistan. I just think that somebody had to have known something. A million dollar plus mansion goes up with walls as high as a prison's, topped with razor wire, and nobody notices? Nobody took note that the largest house in the neighborhood didn't have phone service? Nobody said anything about the weirdos in the big house who burned their garbage?

That the ISI didn't know strains credulity, given that they have had both the Taliban and al Qaeda under their thumbs. Which is why it is highly unlikely that our government is going to care terribly much about Pakistani outrage.

I sure don't.

Brainwashing the Senate

Apparently, that's what the Army has been attempting to do in order to generate support for the Afghan War.

In the cases of McCain and Traitor Joe, the Army didn't need to use very much detergent.

(H/T)

The PSA McCain Should See

It begins about 3:53 into this clip:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
It Gets Worse PSA
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

They are spot on for this. It will be McCain's legacy, right up there with impulsively choosing the Caribou Bimbo for being his running mate.

Not a Maverick, Just a Weasel

John McCain is showing, once again, that he is nothing more than a weasel.

John McCain in 2006 about "don't ask, don't tell":

"The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, 'Senator, we ought to change the policy,' then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to."

But now that day has come, a day that ol' John thought would never come, and just like the weasel that he is, he is backing away:

"At this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."

Once a weasel, always a weasel.